The third of April turned out to be a very fruitful day. Our visit to 'The Change Initiative' as part of my school eco-committee from DPS, Sharjah  was very interesting. The people there first introduced us to the different parts of this unique store and the green building. They also explained about the essential requirements for building sustainable buildings. They are: Location, Energy, Water, Waste management and Building materials.

'The Change Initiative' has an easily accessible location which can be reached by metro, bus or bicycle. It has solar panels, evacuated solar thermal tubes for heating water and the adiabatic cooling system making it energy efficient.

The Adiabatic cooling system has a wire mesh around the place where the air is taken into the pipes. And there are sprinklers kept to spray water in specific intervals of time. This helps save energy as the air has to be cooled lesser. Then the most fun part came. It was investigating time! We had to group up in pairs and go around the building to find out all the eco-friendly stuff. The things we found there were just amazing! There were sunlit lamps where the lights did not use bulbs instead it was the natural sunlight entering through the holes set up for that in the wall. The chandelier was decorated using designs made of magazines, and the floors were made of recycled materials. There were many windows which were coated with special material to let in the light and reflect the heat. This minimized the use of Air Conditioning. The portrait of Steve Jobs was created using e-waste like keyboards, phones and others. I also saw a seat made of nuts and bolts, a recycled glass model and water saving taps.

What about outdoor? There were lots there too. The plants grown outdoors were regional plants, so they consumed lesser water. It used the drip irrigation system instead of sprinklers. The front lights used solar panels and they also had a lighting infrastructure recharger on the light pole.

During renovation, this store had found out some old tiles and wooden planks lying around. But instead of throwing them away, they used the tiles to decorate walls and the wooden planks to decorate the lifts.

The store sells all kinds of eco- friendly products. Some of them are seats made of recycled cardboard that can accommodate up to 20 people, baskets made of natural palm fiber, eco-friendly suitcases and bags made of seatbelts. We also discussed about the different sustainable sources of energy like solar, wind, geothermal etc. and all the queries were answered with utmost patience and satisfaction. Overall, we all learnt and enjoyed a lot in this fun-filled session.